Accessibility and the Digital Service Standard | Digital Transformation Agency

… Accessibility has been a government priority for many years. The release of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (or WCAG 2.0) set a new standard for accessibility. But for those of us who work in government, there is more to consider. Accessibility must go beyond the technical requirements. As I covered in my

Accessibility Testing: Checkers & Development Tools Review

Tools of the Trade In a different article, I outline the basics foundations of accessibility standards: “Understanding s508 & WCAG 2.0“. To further expand this, let’s look at various development tools to help author accessible content conformant to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (“WCAG”) 2.0 standards. Getting Started For a primer or refresher on what

Four Free Tools for Automated Accessibility Testing of Web Apps

Designing and developing for web accessibility has become a requirement of modern computing. Depending on the content and complexity of your project requirements, it can also be a very difficult pursuit. Two colleagues of mine have already written excellent articles exploring the need for and design of accessible web sites: Designing Accessible Software – Breaking

Canada’s new accessibility laws should focus on employment, inclusive buildings, transport

The priorities, which were laid out in a report and released by the federal government Monday, summarize eight months of consultations held with Canadians from coast to coast. Carla Qualtrough Qualtrough, the minister tasked with crafting laws to make Canada more accessible to people with disabilities, says employment will be a key focus of her

At this month’s WWDC, Apple unveiled refined accessibility tools

… …for all the focus on refinement, there also is a cavalcade of new stuff to be excited about. As it pertains to accessibility, some obvious highlights for me are the 10.5” iPad Pro and the corresponding iPad-centric enhancements in iOS 11. I’m also psyched for smaller niceties too, such as the ability to automatically enter Reader View in Safari

The web is awesome and everyone should be able to read it.

These last months I’ve been improving my website accessibility so anyone can understand it. Here’s what I’ve learned: By anyone I mean any person that doesn’t use the internet like I do. Having empathy with the users is one of the things I’ve been learning on web development. You should give it a try as

How Design for Accessibility Drives Innovation for All

Comcast recently made a big splash in the world of assistive technology by launching the industry’s first voice-enabled television user interface, or “talking TV guide,” which gives blind and visually impaired customers the ability to independently explore and navigate thousands of shows and movies. Comcast’s vice president of accessibility Tom Wlodkowski, who is blind, said

How major technology companies are improving accessibility for people with disabilities

The year 2016 saw an increase in focus on accessibility features to allow people with disabilities to access technology. The Microsoft Event that saw the launch of the Surface Studio on October 26, and the Apple event a day later on October 27 which saw the launch of the new Macbook Pro laptops, both opened with a

What Non-Disabled People Get Wrong About Accessibility

…there are a LOT of disabled people in the world, with most estimates at somewhere between 15% and 25% of people being disabled in some way. It’s also because of the way that abled (or non-disabled) people Just Don’t Get It in a million tiny huge ways that add up and can make being their

We need to talk about Accessibility on Chatbots

What happens when a blind person wants to use your chatbot? This idea started after I did a research on UX for autonomous cars or self-driving cars. I did some interviews with 4 people, one of them being blind. I was really surprised to know that she can fully take care of herself and go around